Google Pixel 2 vs Nikon D850

Regular readers may have already seen our iPhone X vs Nikon D850 piece – well we’re at it again, but this time we wanted to see the results of a Google Pixel 2 vs Nikon D850 comparison.

Being the “other” most talked about smartphone camera of the moment, it seemed only fair to put it through the same completely unscientific and unrigorous comparison as with its Apple rival.

The Pixel 2 sits right at the top of DxO’s overall rating for any smartphone – although it lags just a little behind the Apple iPhone X for stills quality. The Nikon D850 meanwhile is the best rated DSLR at the moment – and one of the best “real” cameras currently on the market. But who needs one of those when you have a smartphone, right?

Google Pixel 2 Vs Nikon D850

Unlike the iPhone X, the Google Pixel 2 has just one sensor – but it still has a rather nifty “portrait” mode which you can use to create shallow depth of field effects.

The Nikon D850 has a 45 megapixel full-frame sensor – which for the purposes of this experiment has been paired with a 35mm f/1.4G lens (because why not – I also happened to have it to hand – I told you this was unscientific). It creates its shallow depth of field effects for real, not with artificial intelligence – so there.

To put it to the test, as with the iPhone X test, I enlisted the help of my most willing model (my dog), but to go a little bit further this time, I thought I’d see how it got on with some more intricate subjects too. I took a photo of three different subjects – each at the same place, just a few seconds apart. You can see the results below.

Of course, no surprises here, the D850 puts in a better performance (you saw that coming, right?), but if I’m being honest, the Google Pixel 2 is also very impressive. Don’t examine things too closely and I’d be happy with either dangling for likes on my Instagram feed.

I was particularly impressed with how well it coped with the fine detail of the berries – but – I must admit it took about 5-6 goes to get it to focus on them in the first place. Who’s got that kind of time?

As we said before, there’s endless different caveats, and of course, there’s 1001 things that the Nikon D850 can do that the Google Pixel 2 can’t. But, at the end of the day, I can’t jam a D850 in my jeans pocket (no matter how hard I try).